Flying with a child with PDD-NOS

[HayGan]

We are debating on flying to Orlando for our December trip but besides the cost the idea of flying with our kids is making us lean towards driving down. Has anyone ahd any experience with flying with a child in the spectrum? He loves to take trains and ride in the car but a plane is a whole different experience.

I know each child is different but I would love to hear about other's experiences.

Thanks!

 

[Figment1964]

How old is your son?

My ASD son is 11½ and we've traveled with him a lot by plane. I always make sure he has lots to do, his gameboy, a movie (on dh's laptop), lots of Star War figures (his passion). Since he's been on planes before we knew anything about his ASD we never really had to do much to prepare him for the actual flights. But if your son is old enough maybe a social story would help him. We use SS's all the time for new situations and they work so well for him. Our school district's autism specialist calls me the "social story queen"! My non-AS sons love the social stories too so I just make one for each kid whenever we travel and put them in their own folders.

Maybe a trip to the airport to watch planes take off and land would be a good way to access what his concerns might be and begin a conversation about what to expect.

HTH!

 

[HayGan]

How old is your son?

My ASD son is 11½ and we've traveled with him a lot by plane. I always make sure he has lots to do, his gameboy, a movie (on dh's laptop), lots of Star War figures (his passion). Since he's been on planes before we knew anything about his ASD we never really had to do much to prepare him for the actual flights. But if your son is old enough maybe a social story would help him. We use SS's all the time for new situations and they work so well for him. Our school district's autism specialist calls me the "social story queen"! My non-AS sons love the social stories too so I just make one for each kid whenever we travel and put them in their own folders.

Maybe a trip to the airport to watch planes take off and land would be a good way to access what his concerns might be and begin a conversation about what to expect.

HTH!

He will be 5 1/2 a the time of our trip. I've never tried the social stories but I've heard that they work well for many others.

A trip to the airport would be a good (and fun) idea as well.

Thanks!

 

[Nik's Mom]

My ds flew when he was 4 with PDD-NOS. We gave him benydril before the flight, per our pediatricians instructions. He was perfectly fine on the flight. He will be flying again in 2 weeks and has now been diagnosed with high functioning autism. He will not take meds now, so we'll have to go without benydril this time. We will try to pre-board to ease some of his issues with crowds.

 

[roseprincess]

I also have a ds, 8yrs. old. PDD-NOS. He is more on the lines of Asperger's.
Anyways, my ds, dd, dh, and I went to WDW last June for my dd's MAW trip.
My kids have never been to WDW before and have never been on a plane til last yr. I wasn't sure how both my dd and ds were going to do on a plane for 2 and a half hrs. each way. My ds did very well. What I did, when we were waiting at the gate a few minutes before pre-board, I gave both my kids their Ritalin. My ds and dd are on generic Ritalin( less expensive than Concerta for us) for ADHD. I scheduled to take their dose so I can have them calm for the plane ride. My ds did very well on the plane ride to and from WDW. We brought a couple of small books to read on the plane, plus we had a small travel Simon game he played with. He loved watching out the plane window for most of the flight. We even had snacks( pretzels and water) that kept him occupied. Plus, he liked reading the Disney Magazine that we had brought with. And I think we brought a book with word puzzles and mazes that he likes to do. I even brought Dramamine for the trip in case one of us got nauseus (sp). We didn't even need the Dramamine. I thought I bought the chewable Dramamine, but I bought the pill you have to swallow instead by accident.
My dh and I were thinking about doing the trip to the airport thing for my kids before our WDW trip last yr, but we never got around to it. Going to O'Hare airport in Chicago is just a mess anytime of day and parking there is bad, also.
So that discouraged us to do the airport thing beforehand. But everything worked out well with our plane trip overall.


Rosemarie

 

[roseprincess]

I also forgot to mention that my ds kept wanting to go to the bathroom on the plane, even tho we would make sure he went at the airport before we boarded. He seemed to have a fascination with the plane bathrooms, so did my dd. They were intrigued with the smallness of the bathroom.


Rosemarie

 

[ak_pilot_wife]

Hi! My son is high functioning autism (auspergers), and we fly A LOT (as you can tell from my user name Anyhow, he'll be 5 the end of may, and here's our routine: I love Benedryl! He usually takes a nice nap for us! We purchased a small DVD player to take along with his favorite movies (this is also nice for the hotel to give him continuity/familiarity). Since the battery is only good for 2 hours, we usually hold off pulling this out until close to fussing. We have him help pack his back pack with favorites like hot wheels, couple books, blankie (very soothing for him), etc. We have his water bottle along and his snacks. He has a very hard time with food, so I always pack sandwich, etc. that I know he'll eat. Plus the continuity of same "Mom" food, water bottle, etc. is comforting. We do let him pick what he wants from the beverage cart as a treat, and he looks forward to that. It also seems that he does better if the family splits up. Usually Dad takes one son, Mom takes the other, and we sit in different sections. This gives ds the one-on-one attention, so we don't miss anything he may be feeling. We've also experienced melt downs, and you just get through them the best you can, with as much grace as possible! Ha! The only other thing we've run into is if we are sitting by the engines, it is often too loud for him. We have noise-reducing ear phones he wears because the plugs are too big and won't stay in his ear canal. I'm sure a portable cd player would work too with some soothing music, or your child's favorites.

We'll be flying Seattle - Orlando in May, so will have a long direct flight ahead of us! My 4 must haves: benedryl, dvd, blankie, his food! Everything else we can work around.

Good Luck! Pam

 

[ak_pilot_wife]

Funny side note I forgot...my son LOVES to read the emergency procedure card! He can sit for the longest time studying those pictures. Last trip I had to tell the story for each sequence. Then he wanted to hear it over and over and over! I'm surprised they didn't recruit me for a flight attendant job after that!

 

[SueM in MN]

Here's a link to another recent thread about flying.

 

[Ahrizel]

Benadryl makes many kids(and adults) quite sleepy. I would suggest trying at home before your trip as some kids have an opposite reaction and go very hyper! Try it at home a few weeks before, as well as a decongestant, if you use one as both can have the same side effects. Kids seem to be more prone to the windup effect then grownups. Other then that Bendaryl is a pretty safe drug and if he's sleepy on the flight, so much the better.

 

[spectrums]

My dd has PDD-Nos and she is 11 1/2 - she is an AMAZING traveler! This is our 2nd trip to Disney (a place she flourishes at every time we go!) and last year I took her to Oregon. She does have to go to the bathroom on each plane (no way getting around that one LOL) but as long as she has her headset and her gameboy is charged - we are in the clear!

If you don't want to use something as strong as Benedryl, one suggestion I have is Dimetapp. My dd had nasal problems the morning of our last trip to Disney and she wasn't feeling well. I gave her the Dimetapp and she dozed on the airplane. When she woke up, she felt right as rain! Like I said my dd is an amazing traveler so I am not sure how it would work if you are concerned about someone who may/may not be.